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MAME usage notes

by Wintermute0110

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MAME

The Multi Arcade Machine Emulator (MAME) needs little introduction.

If you have doubts check the MAME FAQ.

Controlling MAME with a gamepad

The default MAME controls are defined in src/emu/inpttype.ipp. The key names are defined in src/emu/input.h.

You will need a keyboard to configure your gamepads in MAME. Once the gamepads are configured the keyboard is not needed.

ScrLk is used to disable keyboard emulation on machines that have a keyboard.

The following table describes the main controls you need to configure in your gamepad and the default key in the keyboard. Bring the MAME menu with the TAB key and enter the Input (general) menu.

Sub menu Name Key Description
User interface Config Menu TAB Open/close the MAME menu
User interface UI Up UP  
User interface UI Down DOWN  
User interface UI Left LEFT  
User interface UI Right RIGHT  
User interface UI Page Up PGUP  
User interface UI Page Down PGDN  
User interface UI Select RETURN  
User interface UI Cancel ESC Go back in menu and exit MAME
Player 1 Controls P1 Up UP  
Player 1 Controls P1 Down DOWN  
Player 1 Controls P1 Left LEFT  
Player 1 Controls P1 Right RIGHT  
Player 1 Controls P1 Button1 LCONTROL  
Player 1 Controls P1 Button2 LALT  
Player 1 Controls P1 Button3 SPACE  
Player 1 Controls P1 Button4 LSHIFT  
Player 1 Controls P1 Button5 Z  
Player 1 Controls P1 Button6 X  
Player 1 Controls P1 Start 1 Start for console machines
Player 1 Controls P1 Select 5 Select for console machines
Other controls 1 Player Start 1 Start for arcade machines
Other controls Coin 1 5 Insert coin for arcade machines
Other controls Service F2 Service menu of arcade machines

This is the typical layout of a gamepad.

Ar

And the recommended MAME control bindings:

Retropad name Kodi name MAME control
B A P1 Button 1
A B P1 Button 2
Y X P1 Button 3
X Y P1 Button 4
SELECT Select Coin 1 and console select
GUIDE Guide UI Cancel
START Start 1 Player Start and console start
L1 Left Bumper P1 Button 5 and UI Page Up
R1 Right Bumper P1 Button 6 and UI Page Down
L2 Left Trigger P1 Button 7
R2 Right Trigger P1 Button 8
L3 Left Thumb Service and UI keyboard …
R3 Right Thumb Config Menu
Dpad Up Dpad Up P1 Up
Dpad Down Dpad Down P1 Down
Dpad Left Dpad Left P1 Left
Dpad Right Dpad Right P1 Right

(Optional) Updating MAME

The MAME version in Trusty is old (0.152). The following PPA contains up-to-date versions of MAME. Create the file /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mame-PPA.list and insert:

# Cesare Falco unofficial MAME builds
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/c.falco/mame/ubuntu trusty main 
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/c.falco/mame/ubuntu trusty main

Basic MAME setup

The first time that MAME is run it will create the directory ~/.mame to store its stuff. A full screen information window will show up stating “No games found. Check your rompath”.

The first step is to create a default configuration file and move it to the ~/.mame. Execute

$ mame -createconfig
$ mv mame.ini .mame

Create a folder ~/ROMs/roms-mame and put some MAME ROMs there to test

$ mkdir ~/ROMs/roms-mame/
$ cp romName.zip ~/ROMs/roms-mame/

Next, edit the mame configuration file ~/.mame/mame.ini and locate the following line

...
rompath $HOME/mame/roms;/usr/local/share/games/mame/roms;/usr/share/games/mame/roms
...

and change it into this

...
rompath $HOME/ROMs/roms-mame
...

If you now execute MAME it will show you a list of the games you copied into ~/ROMs/roms-mame and also an option to configure the controls.

Running MAME from the command line

This is an example of how to run MAME from the command line.

$ mame romName

MAME uses the SDL library for video and sound. If you want to force SDL to use ALSA and a specific sound card other than the default then execute

$ export SDL_AUDIODRIVER=alsa
$ export AUDIODEV=hw:1,3
$ mame romName

By default, MAME should start in full screen mode. If not, edit ~/.mame/mame.ini and change

...
window 1
...

into

...
window 0
...

Basic MAME usage

MAME has a nice in-game menu that can be used to change the controls and other settings. This is a short list of the most useful default controls.

Key Control
TAB Open/Closes the in-game configration menu.
Esc Exits the emulator. User Interface cancel.
5 Player 1 insert coin
1 Player 1 start

Control configuration

Most controls can be configured from the in-game menu, as described here.

Press Tab in-game and choose Input: general to configure controls for all games, or Input: This Game to change controls only for the running game. Then, select the input you want to configure, press enter followed by the key you want it mapped to. More fancy key combinations can be made. To map this key OR that key, set one of the keys as before, wait until MAME accepts it, then repeat for second key.

For the Logitech F710 joystick, this are the recommended controls to remap

In Input: general -> Player 1 controls remap P1 Up, P1 Down, P1 Left, P1 Right to the joystick D-pad and the keyboard arrows.

In Input: general -> Player 1 controls remap P1 Button 1, P1 Button 2, P1 Button 3, and P1 Button 4 to the joystick 4 central buttons (and some keys if you want).

In Input: general -> Other controls remap 1 Player Start to the joystick START button and Coin 1 to the joystick BACK button.

Finally, in Input: general -> User Interface remap UI Select to the joystick button A and to the default key RETURN (it is important to being able to control the User Interface both with the joystick and the keyboard), Config Menu to the joystick button Right analog pad center and to the default key TAB, and UI Cancel to the F710 joystick button Logicool button and to the default key ESC. Note that UI Cancel is used to exit the menu, but also to exit the emulator and return to XBMC.

Additionally, controls can be configured editing the file ~/.mame/cfg/default.cfg, which is an XML file. You will only see entries in this file for key bindings you have modified (an not the defaults). Editing this file is useful when you do a mistake using the User Interface and want to roll-back to default controls. If you decide to change this file, keep in mind that in MAME joystick buttons are numbered from 1 to N, not from 0 to N-1 like in jstest.